Initial thoughts: Cracking Blunt’s brevity code
Reporters from three news outlets comb through e-mails from the governor
Despite the volume of e-mails they generated, Gov. Matt Blunt’s staff actually emphasized abbreviation.
They had to — aides were sending dozens, if not hundreds, of e-mails a day, on a range of topics personal, professional and political, often from their Blackberry devices. The batch of 66,000 turned over to reporters late last week was just a few months worth.
So, to keep it short, mostly everybody had a nickname, usually their initials.
Blunt was “gmb” (Gov. Matt Blut), though his campaign e-mail address used the handle “mrb.” (Matthew Roy Blunt.)
Former chief of Staff Edward R. Martin was usually just Ed, but occasionally “erm.”
Deputy Chief of Staff John Russell was noted as “JR,” Constituent Services Director Mike Ussery was “MU,” while policy advisor Jay Barnes went by “JB.”
Deputy Director of Administration Rich AuBuchon was “sug” to his wife Zora, an attorney in the State Department of Higher Education, who was referred to as “big sug” at least once by her husband.
“TSS” was one that needed some context to figure out — that was State Treasurer Sarah Steelman.
The hardest moniker though to decipher was “MBLW.”
Who could that be?
None other than, of course, Mary Beth Luna Wolf, a policy aide in St. Louis, who was also known in the office as “The Luna Wolf.”
And just how much did the Post and we taxpayers have to pay for you to be this amused?
Another made up scandal against a GOP official in the Post’s effort to help elect Democrats. Nothing more.
It’s ok, tsquare, both the Post-Dispatch and the State of Missouri have plenty of money these days. A booming economy and a prosperous newspaper industry leave plenty of margin for this sort of work.
You talk about a headline…..”Gov’s Secret Code Cracked”
Is this what the last year of moaning about emails intended to discover? That people use initials and nicknames?
Hey Jake, how about identifying those in the photo and which organization they are from? Doesn’t look like a very diverse group, in terms of gender, race or even hairstyles, though a couple of them have the sideburn thing doing.
The Sunshine Law, while intended to increase transparency, has led to lunacy.
While I think official business, conducted via e-mail, must be preserved; the preservation of personal e-mails only feeds the tabloid induced voyeurism we see today.
What’s next? Should every conversation that takes place on the Governor’s phone be recorded? Should every conversation the Governor has, other than that which meets the standard of “privileged” be recorded/video-taped?
Private/personal e-mails should be stripped before any e-mail is released pursuant to a Sunshine Law request.
Dumb asses
looks like they found something.
http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/political-fix/political-fix/2008/11/fired-staffer-did-warn-missouri-governor-about-e-mail-retention/
“… in the Post’s effort to help elect Democrats.” — tsquare
But wouldn’t that violate the Holy Scripture of the Father of Yellow Journalism, Joseph Pulitzer ??
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Quick -
Alert the Liberal Response Team - the Conservative Response Team is in action and standing by their ‘puters for a liberal rejoinder!
“…the key documents show that fired deputy counsel Scott Eckersley did indeed offer advice about e-mail retention to Blunt administration officials, as he said he did.
The e-mails also show former chief of staff Ed Martin orchestrating special interest groups to rally against Blunt rival Attorney General Jay Nixon…”
deny…
deflect…
delay…
attn. neocons—squarehead, nikki, the lunatic, and all…
the proof is indeed here…
cry all you want…
but…
GOTCHA!!!
Please note from where all the profanity and name calling comes from.
The left.
Enough said…